QUINCY, ILL. -- UPDATED: 9:35 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2012
An international filmmaker has his eyes on the Gem City.
Eric Huurre with Skywriter Communications out of Toronto visited with area residents in Quincy Friday night about his plans to shoot a documentary.
The film will focus on how emotional freedom technique or EFT is exploding in small-town America.
You might recall a story we brought you last month about EFT.
It's a therapy in which you tap on certain points on your body to release a negative emotion surrounding an issue, problem or memory.
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ORIGINAL STORY
Some area residents are "tapping" into their emotions to get rid of negative feelings.
"Emotional Freedom Technique," or EFT, is a therapy in which you tap on certain points on your body to release a negative emotion surrounding an issue, problem or memory.
An EFT practitioner who teaches the technique says it's catching on in Quincy.
EFT practitioner Kay Phillips has healing centers in both Chicago and Quincy. She's demonstrating Emotional Freedom Technique on her sister, Connie, who's experiencing empty nest syndrome now that her last child is leaving for college.
"It's classified as a meridian therapy not unlike acupuncture except that we don't use needles," Phillips said. "I've been doing this for about 18 years and have seen it work with people. It's a self-help technique that we can teach people how to apply it for themselves."
Phillips said EFT is not therapy, but she says it can be a great addition to other kinds of cognitive work and talk therapy.
Phillips talks with groups or an individual about a troubling experience, problem or memory. While talking about it, the person quickly taps on certain pressure points of the body. She said the technique can help with everything from fears, phobias, sad feelings, grief, loss and anxiety.
"EFT doesn't erase your memory of a situation, but it does seem to discharge it and neutralize it," Phillips said. "So what might have been a really distressing memory or a thought about something that has happened or something that might happen in the future can suddenly just become a memory that has no big emotion attached to it."
Phillips said she's started using the technique in an area school to help students focus better in the classroom. She has also seen it help a Vietnam veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. But she's had her skeptics.
"They might come in a skeptic, but they usually don't leave one," she said. "You don't have to believe that it works for it to work. There's a lot of science behind EFT, and none of that do I really go over in my classes because it's out there. If you ask me how does it work, I can't really tell you. I also don't exactly know how my cell phone works either, but when it rings, and I open it, and there's someone there, I just accept that it does."
Group classes about EFT are free, but there is a charge for individual sessions.
Kay Phillips plans to offer a free "Introduction to EFT" talk September 18th at New Horizons in the Pear Tree Villa in Quincy.
A Canadian filmmaker is coming to Quincy next month to do a documentary about how EFT is catching on in a smaller community.
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